Maintaining Unit 3 Gallery’s ethos of mixing amateur and professional work in an informal space the new exhibition at the Bladnoch based gallery has nine contributors in total. Steve Dowling has put together an exhibition that takes the viewer from sweeping local views to dimensional representations with a political bias and shows the diversity such an open theme can produce.
Hope London’s work is always colourful and energetic but her most recent work “The Martyrs Stake (Wigtown Bay)” incorporates this passion with a poignancy that makes you want to walk along the same path. John Glover’s mastery in any medium creates envy and admiration in equal measure.
The gallery has three of John’s work on show, in oils, gouache and pastel, and all three are glorious. Particularly lovely for the spring exhibition is the “Bluebell Wood”. The gallery also has a mixture of urban and rural landscapes for Marcer Campbell, from Lockerbie. Marcer works in acrylics and uses colour and clever perspective to create bold works. Kevan McGinty, who has a studio in Whithorn, also has his work exhibited – originals and prints from his Highland collection. Kevan has a great love of hiking and uses the wilderness as the inspiration for his wide open views. Working mostly in acrylics Kevan manages to capture these vistas with ease.
When Steve approached Kevin O’Connor to exhibit Kevin immediately drew on his residency in Grizedale in South Cumbria, where the existence was lonely and cold, but life -changing – Kevin knew of Steve’s other guise as a metal fabricator and made the connection of fire, darkness and intensity to select works that provide a thought provoking contrast to the other works on show. Kevin’s life long friend David Williams also has work on show that challenges the accepted idea of landscape art. There is one single work from Terry Wetherilt – a stormscape that depicts the depth and fear of the power of nature in a just a few masterful brush strokes.
On the “salon wall” there are works from David Coe and Tina Gardner. David has a professional background in graphic design but has delved into the sometimes murky world of watercolour in just the last six months and is showing a wonderful familiarity with the medium. Tina brought in work with some reluctance but her sensitive and accomplished pieces challenge this doubt.
“Landscapes” runs for two months from the 2nd May 2016, the gallery opens from 10am each week day (contact the gallery on 01988 402666 for weekend opening times) and entry is free. For more information visit www.unit3gallery.co.uk. The next exhibition from Unit 3 will run from mid July and will feature assemblage and collage pieces and sculpture using found objects and recycled materials.
